With An Eye On Episode VII, ILM Opens New Visual Effects Office In London

Posted by Eric on February 12, 2014 at 11:50 AM CST |

As production begins on Star Wars Episode VII, Industrial Light & Magic is heading to the UK. ILM president and general manager Lynwen Brennan told The Hollywood Reporter about the visual effects division's plans to open a new facility in central London to handle work on Episode VII and other projects both inside and outside the Disney family.

"It will be a full service studio," Brennan said, referring to the facility. "We'll have an art department, previsualization, and an entire end-to-end visual effects and computer graphics pipeline." The company expects to move into the space around the end of March.

While Abrams and his production team work out of Pinewood Studios, ILM will focus most of its UK activity in this new space. Brennan told THR that the company would "have some art department and previs there, but we’re not currently planning on having a large ILM presence at Pinewood. We did consider splitting the facility in two, but we are now focusing on our London facility and having an as-needed facility at Pinewood to be near the production."

According to the story, ILM's global operations -- including its new London facility, its San Francisco headquarters, and its offices in Vancouver and Singapore -- will use a "pipeline" to coordinate all of the visual effects work on Episode VII.